THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED DUE TO NEW DEVELOPMENTS WEDNESDAY MORNING.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Bureau of Land Management said the Cow Mountain Recreation Area will remain closed this week due to a wildland fire burning in the area since last Friday.
The agency shut down much of the recreation area in response to the Scotts Fire, burning since Sept. 7 on North Cow Mountain, between Scotts Creek and Scotts Valley Road.
As of Wednesday morning, the fire was being held at 4,618 acres, with 75 percent containment, Cal Fire reported.
BLM said the closure covered both the South Cow Mountain Off-Highway Vehicle Area and the North Cow Mountain Recreation Area, and included the Glen Eden Trail, Valley View Trail, Mendo-Rock Road at Mill Creek Road and Mendo Lake Road at both Mill Creek Road and Scotts Creek.
Rich Burns, field manager for BLM’s Ukiah office, said the area was restricted for the safety of the public and firefighters.
“We had a lot of people who basically came up and were interested in seeing what was going on with the fire,” he said.
Burns had anticipated that South Cow Mountain would be reopened on Wednesday. However, on Wednesday morning, he said the area was to remain closed until Monday, Sept. 17.
With much of the fire on North Cow Mountain, he said that area also was to remain closed until further notice.
Burns estimated that the bulk of the scorched acreage – more than 3,000 acres – was BLM land.
Most of it is open space, but he said there were serious concerns for infrastructure on the land, including cell towers and an FAA communications tower that is critical to controlling West Coast air traffic.
“It seems to be protected, at least for the time being,” Burns said.
Cal Fire spokesman Mike Carr said early on in the incident firefighters did a lot of work to protect the tower. He said firefighters continued to protect the facility.
Chief Tim Streblow of Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that the tower, a critical pass off point between airports in Seattle and Oakland, had brush built up around it when the fire started. He said firefighters cleared around the tower to help protect it.
Streblow said a Homeland Security installation on Cow Mountain also was protected during the firefighting effort.
For more information about Cow Mountain visit www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/ukiah.html .
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